Dear Brothers and Sisters of Sacred Heart Parish,

I want to begin by thanking you for taking the time to fill out the survey regarding ideas for future use of the old parish office space at Sacred Heart. The survey was the first step in a process that is seeking to find where the energy is for using that space. The next step we will take is to offer some town hall meetings in which we can discuss three of the ideas that came up several times. After the town hall meetings, I will meet with the Parish Council and the Parish Pastoral Team to determine if one or two of the ideas have a lot of energy behind them and then set up a committee or two to investigate what it would actually take to make that idea a reality. After the committee(s) collects their information it would be presented to the parish and at that point we would decide if it is something that we would like to pursue or not.

As I said the next step will be the town hall meetings. We have scheduled three that we are hoping, based on the survey results, will be the easiest for folks to attend. All three ideas will be discussed at each town hall so you will only have to attend one. The town hall meetings have been scheduled for the following dates:

Saturday June 9th Following the 5:45 pm Mass Viewing of old parish office space, 7:00 pm Townhall discussion in the Parish Activity Center

At the town halls we are seeking to understand what excites you the most about these ideas. The following three ideas seem to have some energy behind them based on the surveys and are being offered for consideration at the townhall meetings:

Young Adult Housing: In light of the Young Adult Initiative grant the idea is that the space could be used for young adult housing. These would be young people dedicated to living intentionally Catholic lives. We would provide fairly cheap housing and a committed Catholic community and they would provide young adult life and presence in our community.

Space for our School and Preschool Ministry: Several ideas were thrown out about possibly using the space to expand the space that is available to the school and preschool ministries.

Renting the Space to Non‐Profits: Several ideas were thrown out about trying to find a non‐profit to rent the space. The non‐profit would of course share our Catholic values and provide help to our local community. We would provide fairly cheap rent and a supportive community.

I think it is important to acknowledge that there were several responses that spoke of a desire to re‐open a parish office at Sacred Heart. I completely understand why many folks have that desire. I do not wish to have the possible re‐opening of a parish office hanging over our heads as a possible source of division and discord. If and when we see a dramatic increase in Weekend Mass Attendance & Sunday/Holy Day Collections and there is a need for each parish to have its own full dedicated staff and it is financially sustainable we will have that discussion.

I hope you will take a moment to put one of the townhall meetings in your calendar so that we can hear from you! In case you might be wondering you do not have to have filled out a survey to attend the townhall meeting. In fact, we are hoping to hear from as many Sacred Heart parishioners as possible. Thank you for all that you do!